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Sake! and Teppanyaki

Looking for a great venue for a birthday dinner? Try Benihana in Chandler AZ for teppanyaki.

For the past 10 years, my best friends and I have celebrated our individual birthdays with dinner out. And nearly once a year, one of us chooses a hibachi restaurant. We seem to have some of the fondest memories from these events and each time the reminiscing list from times before get longer and longer.

Benihana is a Japanese-style hibachi steakhouse – called “teppanyaki.” The food is prepared at a grill right in front of the diners where the chef is the main entertainment. Imagine an interactive experience where the chef chops at flash speed; lights a mountain of onions; flips shrimp tails from the grill to his hat or shirt pocket and chats with the diners.

Add to that the laid-back atmosphere, fun servers, rice beer, sake bombers (sake shots dropped into a glass of beer while you yell “Sake!!”), and CUI (chopsticking while under the influence). Well, you have the makings of an entertaining evening. Oh, and at Benihana they even sing happy birthday to you in Japanese!

Most of us had some combination of steak, chicken or shrimp with the traditional grilled vegetables and soup. All were grilled to perfection with perfectly sticky rice and GREAT sauces on the side.

This year we didn’t make our birthday girl wear the traditional boa and birthday hat with candles on top but we did have a lot of fun once again!!